In praise of a brave whistleblower

I applaud Sylvie Therrien for her courageous, ethical stance and am grateful to her and those like her for their whistleblowing. As an Ontario public servant and a Canadian, I hope that I would have the courage of my own convictions when faced with implementing an unethical and often ruthless (may I say stupid?) politically-driven decision. It is no secret that politicians will throw public servants to the lions in the blink of an eye and we are scapegoats more often than not. The situation with Therrien is no different. Toronto police have been suspended with pay for years until serious allegations against them have been resolved, but Therrien gets suspended without pay?

There is no right or wrong way for a public servant to whistleblow against corruption — either fiscal or ethical — because the act of whistleblowing is always right.

I am calling on every union and workers association, every not-for-profit working for the poor and underemployed in this country to put pressure on the government to drop all disciplinary action against Therrien. She deserves the highest praise for standing up for this country’s most vulnerable. Something our politicians do far too rarely.

Dina Waik, Toronto

If only this Harper government had as much zeal in monitoring and punishing the Senate abuses as it does employment insurance fraud. Given the enormous amounts of money at risk from errant senators and the fact that their fraudulent schemes are actually funded by taxpayers, the supposed mission of this government, to always protect the taxpayer and uphold law and order, is very much in jeopardy.